THE BIRD OF THE FEELINGS for Clarinet and Piano（2004）

I composed this piece in 2004 in response to a commission from the clarinettist Kiyosumi Ogura for a paraphrase of Japanese children’s songs. Quotes appear from seven such songs (Shabondama, Tanabata-sama, Umi, Mushi no koe, Momiji, Fuyu no yoru and Ureshii hinamatsuri) reflecting the passing of the seasons, with the main position at the beginning and the ending of the piece being occupied by the song Shabondama (Soap Bubbles). The depth of emotion engendered in me by this song continues to pervade the gaps between the quotes from the other six songs in their passage from one season to the next.
I discovered subsequently that the circumstances underlying the birth of the text of Shabondama are unclear, although when I composed this piece I had assumed that it reflected the forlorn emotions felt by its writer, the poet Ujō Noguchi, on the loss of his child. (Even if this was not actually the experience underlying the text, it still seems to me that the text does indeed convey such emotions.) My idea was to intertwine several songs around this particular song which lies at the core of the piece.
The first time I heard Kiyosumi Ogura play the piece I sensed the emotions of a father who had undergone such a devastating experience, but at the same time I had the impression of the child’s soul transformed into a bird and observing the situation from way above. This is why I gave the piece the title The Bird of the Feelings, although I was motivated in the first instance to compose a piece in this vein based on children’s songs by the mysteriously attractive tone, which seems to emerge from out of some transcendental realm, of Kiyosumi Ogura’s clarinet.